Medical visualization research has focused primarily on assisting physicians in diagnosis and treatment and, to a lesser extent, medical students, particularly in anatomy classes. However, medical data and research are also of interest to non-experts who lack detailed medical knowledge. They may be interested in links between lifestyle and disease, in understanding disease, and in (new) treatment options. Non-expert audiences require different design and narrative choices to create a clear, accessible, and understandable message. Interactive medical visualization aimed at this type of audience requires easier-to-understand displays than expert systems such as radiology workstations. Narrative visualization combines storytelling techniques with interactive graphics to communicate scientific results to a general audience.
→ Narrative Visualization Meeting
→ Narrative Medical Visualization Website
A short summarization of our current field of research:
- Adapting and extending of existent techniques for medical visualization for a target audience of laypeople
- Evaluation of narrative medical visualization
Publications
2024
Sarah Mittenentzwei, Sophie Mlitzke, Darija Grisanova, Kai Lawonn, Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke
Visually communicating pathological changes: A case study on the effectiveness of phong versus outline shading Journal Article
In: Computers & Graphics 2024, 2024.
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title = {Visually communicating pathological changes: A case study on the effectiveness of phong versus outline shading},
author = {Sarah Mittenentzwei and Sophie Mlitzke and Darija Grisanova and Kai Lawonn and Bernhard Preim and Monique Meuschke},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0097849324001584?via%3Dihub},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2024.104023},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-10-01},
journal = {Computers & Graphics 2024},
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Sarah Mittenentzwei, Danish Murad, Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke
Leaving the Lab Setting: What We Can Learn About the Perception of Narrative Medical Visualizations from YouTube Comments Proceedings Article
In: Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine, 2024, 2024.
@inproceedings{Mittenentzwei2024,
title = {Leaving the Lab Setting: What We Can Learn About the Perception of Narrative Medical Visualizations from YouTube Comments},
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doi = {https://doi.org/10.2312/vcbm.20241193},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-09-20},
booktitle = {Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine, 2024},
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Sarah Mittenentzwei, Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke
Why, What, and How to Communicate Health Information Visually: Reflections on the Design Process of Narrative Medical Visualization Proceedings Article
In: Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine, 2024, 2024.
@inproceedings{Mittenentzwei2024b,
title = {Why, What, and How to Communicate Health Information Visually: Reflections on the Design Process of Narrative Medical Visualization},
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doi = {https://doi.org/10.2312/vcbm.20241192},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-09-20},
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Theresa Maienschein, Mareen Allgaier, Florentine Huettl, Tobias Huber, Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke
Virtual Tales: Narrative Virtual Reality for Patient Education Proceedings Article
In: Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine, 2024.
@inproceedings{Maienschein24,
title = {Virtual Tales: Narrative Virtual Reality for Patient Education},
author = {Theresa Maienschein and Mareen Allgaier and Florentine Huettl and Tobias Huber and Bernhard Preim and Monique Meuschke},
url = {https://www.vismd.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Maienschein_VCBM2024.pdf},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-09-20},
booktitle = {Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine},
journal = {Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine},
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Anna Kleinau, Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke
Raccoon: Supporting Risk Communicators in Visualizing Health Data for the Public Proceedings Article
In: Vision, Modeling, and Visualization, The Eurographics Association, 2024, ISBN: 978-3-03868-247-9.
@inproceedings{Kleinau2024,
title = {Raccoon: Supporting Risk Communicators in Visualizing Health Data for the Public},
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url = {https://www.vismd.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ANNA_vmv20241200.pdf},
doi = {10.2312/vmv.20241200},
isbn = {978-3-03868-247-9},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-09-12},
booktitle = {Vision, Modeling, and Visualization},
publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
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Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke, Veronika Weiß
A Survey of Medical Visualization through the Lens of Metaphors Journal Article
In: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 30, no. 10, 2024.
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title = {A Survey of Medical Visualization through the Lens of Metaphors },
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https://isgwww.cs.uni-magdeburg.de/medvismetaphors/},
doi = {10.1109/TVCG.2023.3330546 },
year = {2024},
date = {2024-01-01},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics},
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number = {10},
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2023
Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke
Narrative Visualisierung in der Medizin Journal Article
In: IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft, vol. 38, 19. Jg., (2), pp. 94-112, 2023, ISBN: 1614-0885.
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title = {Narrative Visualisierung in der Medizin},
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url = {https://image-journal.de/narrative-visualisierung-in-der-medizin/},
doi = {10.1453/1614-0885-2-2023-15739},
isbn = {1614-0885},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-10-26},
journal = {IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft},
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pages = {94-112},
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Benedikt Mayer, Nastasja Steinhauer, Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke
A Characterization of Interactive Visual Data Stories With a Spatio-Temporal Context Journal Article
In: Computer Graphics Forum, vol. n/a, no. n/a, pp. e14922, 2023.
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title = {A Characterization of Interactive Visual Data Stories With a Spatio-Temporal Context},
author = {Benedikt Mayer and Nastasja Steinhauer and Bernhard Preim and Monique Meuschke},
url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cgf.14922},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.14922},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-08-18},
journal = {Computer Graphics Forum},
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Sarah Mittenentzwei, Veronika Weiß, Steffi Schreiber, Laura Garrison, Stefan Bruckner, M. Pfister, Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke
Do Disease Stories need a Hero? Effects of Human Protagonists on a Narrative Visualization about Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Journal Article
In: Computer Graphics Forum, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 123-135, 2023.
@article{Mittenentzwei_2023_CGF,
title = {Do Disease Stories need a Hero? Effects of Human Protagonists on a Narrative Visualization about Cerebral Small Vessel Disease},
author = {Sarah Mittenentzwei and Veronika Weiß and Steffi Schreiber and Laura Garrison and Stefan Bruckner and M. Pfister and Bernhard Preim and Monique Meuschke},
url = {https://vis.uib.no/wp-content/papercite-data/pdfs/garrison-diseasestories.pdf},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.14817},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-06-19},
journal = {Computer Graphics Forum},
volume = {42},
number = {3},
pages = {123-135},
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Sarah Mittenentzwei, Sophie Mlitzke, Kai Lawonn, Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke
Communicating Pathologies and Growth to a General Audience Journal Article
In: Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine, 2023.
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title = {Communicating Pathologies and Growth to a General Audience},
author = {Sarah Mittenentzwei and Sophie Mlitzke and Kai Lawonn and Bernhard Preim and Monique Meuschke},
url = {https://diglib.eg.org/bitstream/handle/10.2312/vcbm20231215/075-085.pdf},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.2312/vcbm.20231215},
year = {2023},
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2022
Anna Kleinau, Evgenia Stupak, Eric Mörth, Laura A Garrison, Sarah Mittenentzwei, Noeska N Smit, Kai Lawonn, Stefan Bruckner, Matthias Gutberlet, Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke
Is there a Tornado in Alex’s Blood Flow? A Case Study for Narrative Medical Visualization Proceedings Article
In: Eurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine, The Eurographics Association, 2022.
@inproceedings{Kleinau_2022_VCBM,
title = {Is there a Tornado in Alex’s Blood Flow? A Case Study for Narrative Medical Visualization},
author = {Anna Kleinau and Evgenia Stupak and Eric Mörth and Laura A Garrison and Sarah Mittenentzwei and Noeska N Smit and Kai Lawonn and Stefan Bruckner and Matthias Gutberlet and Bernhard Preim and Monique Meuschke},
url = {https://www.vismd.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Paper_Kleinau_VCBM2022.pdf},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-01-01},
booktitle = {Eurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine},
journal = {Eurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine},
publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
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pubstate = {published},
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